...online changed my gambling habits! A ramble...

Hello  sinceninetyeight and Welcome to the forum

Im glad you have written that because its a sign you are willing to question your behaviour.

I hope you will continue to talk it through and involve your partner and other non gamblers to get more reality checks.

There are some warning signs there. The mobile in your pocket makes it easier to distance yourself from the seedy reality of bookies. This gives you a feeling that you can make clever and more private bets.

Its still money...hard earned money in digital form

The comfort zone you create that you rely on judgement..its only  smallish bets and you have a good job and savings. Ive heard that many times on here but gambling is not an income scheme and you face teams of people setting odds and helping to create the delusion.

Those bets add up and lead to the red trance of sillier and crazier decisions

I always exagerate this reality to press a point....nobody is offering you life changing odds on the only four legged horse or Man U vs the grannies 11. Its not even a fair challenge as all the risk is really with you. You are against funds large enough to take the spread of activity without breaking a sweat...thay arent offering any odds that would worry them 

Like other forms of gambling what you may be getting most of is escape and that is  a worrying sign with a known progressive addiction and illness.

Gambling is a drug which acts as a soother or stress reliever. It often starts as recreational but is highly addictive. The boredom betting is a time waster for people seeking the fix because nothing seems a better use of their time

Im mighty glad you dont go near the slots but sports betting is not a soft option and it still makes addicts of people.

Do the exercises of finding out who you are and why you think you gamble. Its not a wholesome activity. Its a vice and a mugs game when you get realistic about it.

Only you can make these decisions but my best advice is that you talk to people close and be very honest about what you are doing, when you are doing it and what you are giving away financially.

You will find it difficult to explain a gambling session because quite rightly it makes no sense to a non gambler

Best wishes from everyone on the forum

This may be a ramble but i'm struggling to understand the point of it ?

Are you saying you have a problem with gambling or not ? i read a lot of self justification and self reasoning but  struggling to see much else ?

My feeling is deep down you recognise you have a problem and probably have done for the last 20 years ....sometimes it's not just money we lose to this addiction it's time and it sounds like you have paid your fair share of time to gambling 

I myself gambled for 10 years starting when i was a teenager in a seaside arcade this led to casinos onto sports and towards the end online roulette and black jack

i could write a book on each stage ......but there was one common trend me losing time and money hand over fist during every single one of them episodes

I had a couple of big accumulators on football which just about broke me level for a year or two but even that got to the point where i was watching football from 10 in the morning until 10 in the night on a Saturday

Completely obsessed 

I've left it all behind now for good .....the lifestyle is toxic and rarely any good will ever come from it

 i would advise anyone to do the same.

I think you make a great point here about TIME. I dread to think in my life (late 30s now) how much TIME I have lost checking and following scores and sports. Of course lost plenty of money along the way which has caused me problems, but as my years go on it is the time element I regret the most and how gambling tricks you into thinking the other less "exciting dopamine inducing" activities are no longer fun. If you break the gambling cycle you change your perspective on that and I am glad that you have. I go periods of abstinence and back into it, but have experienced it and want it again.

To the original poster, I would suggest doing the Gamechange course on here. It will really help you to explore your relationship with gambling and see if you want to change.

Short reply, you are one bet on a cliff edge to loosing it all with that sign of behaviour currently. If it was me I would be remortgaging the house after 3 months with no savings too if I was back doing anything close to that.

I think which is hard is to just move on to some thing more interesting in life because you are very close to moving into a compulsive gamblers spiral.

I am no expert but the 23 transactions can turn into a weekend of hundreds of transactions which I have done in the past.

I hope this helps your understand of the now, I would recommend reading a few pots on the forum to see my point of view from this comment

take care and just for today I will not gamble

dave101